2018 U.S. National Championships

29 December - 7 January 2018, San Jose, CA

Previews

The "Usual
Suspects" Headline Dance Championships
- Maia & Alex Shibutani, the 2016 and 2017 U.S. champions and
three-time World medalists, Madison Chock & Evan Bates, the 2015
U.S. titlists and two-time World medalists and Madison Hubbell
&
Zachary Donohue, the four-time U.S. bronze medalists, collectively
comprise some of the three strongest American dance entries to ever
be facing off against one another at a U.S. Championships,
especially during an Olympic season, which ought to make this a more
exciting showdown than ever.

U.S. Pair Teams Vie for One Olympic Berth
- The country’s
premiere pair teams, helmed by Alexa Scimeca Knierim &
Chris Knierim, the 2015 U.S. champions and Deanna Stellato & Nathan Bartholomay of Ellenton, Florida, the 2017 U.S.
fourth-place finishers are some of the teams at the helm of
this year’s U.S. pair roster at the U.S. Championships in
San Jose, which kicks off on Thursday, January 4th
at the SAP Center.

U.S. Men Ready for Showdown in San Jose
- The leading U.S. men seem as fired
up as ever as they prepare to face off against one another
at the U.S. Championships in San Jose this week in hopes of
scoring a medal and one of three sought-after U.S. Olympic
spots.

Top American
Ladies in the Hunt for U.S. Olympic
Berths in San Jose- It's show time this week for Karen Chen, the
2017 U.S. champion, Ashley Wagner, the 2016 World silver medalist and
three-time U.S. titlist, Mirai Nagasu, the 2008 U.S. champion, Bradie
Tennell, the 2015 U.S. junior gold medalist, along with several other
premiere American ladies, to score a coveted U.S. Olympic team spot at
the U.S. Championships in San Jose.

U.S. Olympic Team
nominations(1) and World Team selections
following the National Championships roughly followed order
of finish, though with one unsurprising exception. The guiding
principle for Olympic selections is to choose those skaters who are most likely to
gain the U.S. the largest number of medals at the 2018 ISU
Olympic Winter Games. The guiding principle for World
and World Junior selections is to choose those skaters who
are most likely to gain the U.S. the largest number of
entries for the subsequent 2019 ISU Championships.

For the men, silver medalist Ross
Minor was bypassed
for Adam Rippon (pewter medal) for the Olympic and World
Championships, and as a further slap in the face he was named
only the second alternate for the Olympic Team. Minor
was assigned to the Four Continents Championships but
withdrew on 12 January 2018.

For the ladies, it was speculated
that pewter medalist Ashley Wagner might be selected over
one of the higher placing ladies, but it was ultimately
thought by the International Committee of U.S. Figure
Skating that Wagner had a lesser body of work for the season
and was not selected to the Olympic or World Teams.
She was assigned to the Four Continents Championships, but
on 12 January 2018 U.S. Figure Skating announce she too had
withdrawn from that competition.

In a quirk of the Olympic rules, the U.S. has
two entries for the 2018 World Championships, but only one for the
Olympic Winter Games. As expected, Knierem & Knierem were named the
sole nomination for the Olympic Team.

In Dance, the top three teams, who have been at
each others heels all season, were named to the Olympic and World teams.

Follow the link for all assignments.

(1) U.S. Figure
Skating nominates
Olympic Team members to the USOC which actually selects the entire
Olympic Team representing the U.S. in the Olympic Winter Games.
U.S. Figure Skating selects
the team members to the various ISU Championships.

The Juvenile and Intermediate Championships kicked off
the 2018 National Championships at the Solar4America Ice
arena in San Jose, CA on Friday, December 29. The 2018
Championships are several weeks earlier than usual due to
this being an Olympic season. The schedule is also a
day longer than in the past, starting a day earlier and
filling up 10 days of competition. Juvenile singles
and pairs competitions were completed on this first day, and
the Intermediate singles and pairs skated their short
programs. Attendance varied during the day, but was
generally 200-300 spectators. Only about 450 seats are
available, and for the Junior Short programs, we predict a
lot of unhappy all event ticket holders will be unable to
get into the arena. Why the Junior short programs are
even in the secondary arena at all, though, in itself makes
no sense.

Isabeau Levito, from New Jersey, led the way on both the
technical side and component side to win the Juvenile Girls
title. She gave a strong, dynamic, outgoing
performance that was clearly above the rest of her group,
earning 65.39 points, with Performance in Interpretation
scores in the fives - excellent scores for a Juvenile
skater. She opened with a strong double Axel, then
filled time with her Choreographic step sequence, to allow
the remaining jumps to be executed in the second half.
Her second double Axel, in combination with half loop and
double flip was not as clean as the first, with the half loop
called under-rotated. Both of her spins reached level
4. At 10 years old, Levito is the kind of Juvenile
skater the U.S. needs to be developing at her age.

Skating to music from "Peter Pan," New
York native Keita Horiko won the Juvenile
Boys title with a strong skate.
Most of his lead (2.58 points) came on the technical side,
though he still managed to lead in components by 0.53
points. He landed two double Axels, though with a
handful of negative GoEs. One of these was in
combination with half loop and double loop. Both his
spins reached level 4. Like Lovato, his program was
back loaded with an opening double flip, then a time-killing
spin and Choreographic step sequence followed by four jump
elements in a row - not particular creative choreography,
but good for racking up points.

Natasha Mishkutionok (Dallas FSC) & Daniel Tioumentsev
(Albuquerque
FSC) skated a Russian gypsy themed program. They scored 48.63
points, 5.05 ahead of the rest of the group. The team
scored level four on their opening group2 lift and closing
pair spin. Their side-by-side change combination spin
was scored level 3. Their components averaged near
4.25. While well skated, like all the Juvenile pairs,
their program is hampered by ruled that restrict the
Juvenile pairs to mostly trivial pairs elements.
Compared to Juvenile singles and dance, Juvenile pairs is
handcuffed by rules that hold back the development of U.S.
pairs.

The Intermediate Championships for singles and pairs will
finish on Saturday, December 30 with the skating of their
long programs.